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Illustrations 1a & 1b: Letter from the Secretary of War regarding permanent grave markers.

The hand-written document pictured here is a portion of a letter from Secretary of War W.W. Belknap to Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs on June 23, 1873, stating his selection of permanent headstone to mark the graves of known and unknown veterans.

Questions for Illustrations 1a & 1b

1. What were some considerations relevant to the preparation and finish of the headstones/markers and the information on them?

2. What distinguishes the markers for the known dead compared to the unknown dead?

3. What might a cemetery's latitude have to do with the dimension of headstones?

* The images on this screen have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a larger version of Illustration 1a and Illustration 1b, but be aware that each file will take as much as 35 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.